Archive for June, 2015

The tragic death of Beau Biden has put a spotlight on his brief and distinguished career. As Attorney General of Delaware, Biden oversaw the prosecution of pediatrician Earl Bradley in what many consider the most horrific child sexual-abuse case in state history. There were more than 100 victims; their average age was three and Dr. Bradley videotaped the abuse. He was convicted of fourteen counts of Rape in the First Degree and sentenced to fourteen life sentences. Beau Biden became a strong advocate of raising awareness about the sexual abuse of children. The Biden family recently created a foundation to continue this cause.

The Bradley case is notable for three reasons beyond the lurid details that have received the most attention. First, the case demonstrates the widespread problem of non-disclosure by children who have been sexually abused. The videotapes document more than 100 victims, very few of whom ever came forward in any way that has been documented. This includes children who had been choked or suffocated and subject to extreme sexual violence. Those who promote the witch-hunt narrative continue to reject the initial precepts of child abuse accommodation syndrome, asserting instead that delayed disclosures of sexual abuse are somehow unusual or suspect. This case illustrates the folly of those claims.

A Texas appellate court recently decided that Francis and Daniel Keller should not be declared innocent of child sexual-abuse charges from 1992. Those who promote the witch-hunt narrative have responded in high dudgeon. But their accounts of the case, like Radley Balko’s treatment in the Washington Post, are wrong in every particular. Specifically:

(1) The Kellers were never charged with, let alone convicted of, satanic ritual abuse. As explained in this article in the Huffington Post last July, those issues arose after the case was charged and involved children who were not part of the charges. The only reason those issues came into the Keller case is because the defense brought them up.

Dr. Michael Mouw, whose “recantation” has been accepted without skepticism

(2) Dr. Mouw’s “recantation” did not negate all of the medical evidence of abuse in the case. As anyone who bothered to read his affidavit can see, Dr. Mouw still admits that the original girl in this case had a tear in her vagina. Cathy Young has dismissed this evidence with the wild assertion that vaginal tears are normal in non-abused children, but virtually all research of “normal” genitals contradicts this claim. The Keller case began with a genital injury that Dr. Mouw does not deny. His “recantation” of the other finding strains credulity. It relies on the claim that Dr. Mouw had a clear recollection of this genital exam many years after he testified that he had absolutely no recollection of the exam.